Samsung DVD-VR375/DVD-VR375A Tunerless DVD Recorder VHS Combo

Samsung DVD-VR375/DVD-VR375A Tunerless DVD Recorder VHS Combo
For the price this model is not bad at all. I really don't have much desire to tape (or 'DVD', as it were) shows and re-watch them. I was simply buying this to transfer VHS home movies to DVD and give as a gift to my parents. It's done just that with no major problems. 

I'm no electronics wizard, per se, and I had no problem plugging it in, playing with the remote a bit and dubbing DVDs in no time. I'm using DVD-R discs with no problem. 

One problem I had, that maybe a more tech-savvy use wouldn't, is the 'VR' function. It seemed to me that a disc dubbed in VR has a lot more features, like splitting a chapter in two then erasing part of it, moving one half to another chapter, etc. But, discs recorded in VR wouldn't load on my only one-year old Mac. I'm weary about downloading all kinds of crazy drivers and programs, so I was pretty much stuck with two worthless disks after that. But, for what I want to do, discs dubbed in the standard mode play on my DVD player and load onto my computer with ease. 

I was kinda shocked that the player only dubs in 1:1 time. I was expecting high-speed dubbing, but maybe that's just me. 

The remote isn't anything different than most are probably used to. Frankly I really didn't need the remote to use the machine the way I wanted to. Recording VHS-DVD, or vice-versa, can be done without even putting batteries in it. 

If you're looking for a product that will convert home movies to DVD, then allow you to further edit them on a computer, I would recommend buying this machine. $150-ish is nothing compared to documenting and preserving family history.